COMM 222 Chapter 2: Chapter 2 - Learning
16 Jan 2017
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Learning: relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs due to practice or experience. B. f. skinner 1930s, observed that rats learned to pull lever to obtain food. Operant learning: subject learns to operate on the environment to achieve certain consequences. The behaviour is controlled by the consequences that follow it: e. g. if rats were shocked every time they pulled a lever, they would learn to avoid pulling it. Used to increase the probability of desired behaviours and to reduce/eliminate the probability of undesirable behaviours. Most important consequence that in uences behaviour is reinforcement: the process by which stimuli strengthen behaviour . Positive reinforcement: the application of a stimulus that increases / maintains the probability of some behaviour: favourable decisions is added to the situation to reinforce that behaviour. Negative reinforcement: the removal of a stimulus that increases / maintains the probability of behaviour.
